Friday, March 27, 2015

Lido di Jesolo, Italy

I arrived to the Ute Hotel and promptly went outside to scope the views from the balcony.

Little lovely view of the sea to the right...

...and mountains to the left!
(The AquaLandia slides have a great view too!)

The hotel and room is very basic. It's a great price and just 3.5 kilometers from the arena where the gymnastics meet is that I'm here for. I figure that will be a nice walk along the waterfront!

Last year I tried looking around for gymnastics in Italy. Italy usually has a good team and strong gymnasts, so I figured there must be some. I did find a competition that looked good... but I couldn't find how to purchase tickets... all of the information was in Italian and all there seemed to be was a poster for the event... and then I stopped thinking of going when I realized it's not in Venice but about 30 kilometers away.

This year I've been watching interviews and videos from the Karolyi training camps. The girls each talked about the Jesolo Trophy meet in Italy... and how that is the first big meet that they are all training to be ready for. WHAT?!? That's the meet!! Once I began hearing how big this meet is... and even just that it's real, I decided I needed to make it work this year.

I searched and collected information. The assistant in the library at school helped me purchase the tickets online (it was all in Italian and required two different websites, a phone call, two separate transactions, and the postal service). I booked a hotel, bought train tickets, and am now HERE! Stoked.

The meet has been going on the past two days but I have tickets for Saturday and Sunday - the finals. The U.S. team actually hasn't had to compete yet to qualify, since they won the meet last year - they automatically qualify.

Three of the girls from the 2012 Olympic team are here - and are hoping to make the 2016 team... also, Simone Biles is here - she's been the World Champion the past two years and is the "it" girl in gymnastics right now. I'm really excited to see them in person and have two full days of gymnastics.

Some pictures of the beachfront:



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